A mid-latitude ocean basin can be idealized as a quasi-geostrophic two-layer flow. The upper layer, or top 1000m, represents the thermocline. The lower layer represents the abyss to a depth of 4000m. The shallow water approximation is applied to both layers and the evolution equation for the potential vorticity in each layer is solved using a pseudo-spectral method. The flow is forced by wind stress acting on the upper layer. Parameterizations of lateral and bottom friction terms are utilized to model small-scale turbulence.
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